Pet peeve # 1

Salaam Ale Kum from Smita! (Muslim hello) How are you all doing today? I am doing great. I was working out in the morning at the gym. Showbiz tonight was on, when I saw something, which led me to my current pet peeve. Do you folks know about Susan Boyle? Well, she was this frumpy woman at whom the audience jeered, and Simon was smirking on the show called 'Britain's got talent'. Nobody believed in her. She astounded everyone with her vocal ability. Anyways, I was very happy when I saw it for the first time. But the media is all over her now. For God's sake leave her alone and let her sing. We got it! She rocks! Now let her move on and produce an album.
Then they go on to bombard us with other instances of unsung heroes with talent. Like the truck driver who could sing. They zoom in on teary eyed judge or Simon's jaw dropping- all so cheesy..aaaaargh!!
Moving on, I have loads of work on my plate but I can handle everything ( this is a positive autosuggestion for myself :) ) . I have to write my thesis, get this darned plaque assay working. I won't bore you, but plaque assay is a method to quantify infective virus. I need to perfect this so that it can be used routinely later for aerosol experiments- to measure the amount of infective flu virus in the air. Working with viruses is hard. Especially, when you have to work with attenuated ones, in the interest of safety for everyone. Also you don't get permission to use virulent viruses that easy. Then I have to get another procedure called TCID50 working- this is an alternate to plaque assay.

And now Recipe of the day ta daa!!!

Yesterday we had Fried rice. This is another way to use up leftover rice. In fact it goes better when you are making this.

Shredded cabbage ( 1/2 to 1/4)
Chopped mushrooms ( a couple)
Eggs (2, fried separately)
peas
Fine chopped onion ( handful- depends on the quantity you making, we had approx 2 cups rice)
1 Green chilli
cumin powder 1/4 tsp
Garam masala 1/4 tsp
a dash of turmeric

Jamie made this. She is getting brave with using Indian spices without me being around..clap clap clap !! Saute onions, then add cabbage, peas. When half done, add spices and let it simmer. I don't like to overcook cabbage. I like it crisp. Finally add rice and eggs ( which were cooked separately), mix, add salt and pepper to taste.
We ate it with a mixed green salad. The dressing was simple.
Olive oil
Worcestershire sauce a couple of dashes
Honey
sesame seeds.
Beat this and pour over your greens.

Oops, I was supposed to take those soy pretzels from Amber today. Totally forgot with the prof in my lab.

I am going home now. Take care

Smita